The guide directory details all Guild Accredited Members. Each of these has passed our Accreditation Programme – so you can be sure they are all high quality guides and will give you a great tour!
You can filter by battle/campaign or country and then click on the name of an Accredited Guide to read their biography. Most Accredited Guides have contact details by which you can contact them directly. If not, or if you want to pass a message to them, please contact them via the Guild Secretary via our Contacts Page.
Many Guides can develop bespoke personalised tours and can research where particular ancestors might have fought or died. If you want to advice on following a particular ancestor and you have not identified a particular Accredited Guide, please contact the Guild Secretary. We guarantee we’ll have somebody that can help you!
Finally, this list shows only our Accredited Guides. Our Ordinary Members are not listed here and if you would like to check whether a particular individual is a member of the Guild, or for any other further help, please contact the Guild Secretary via our Contacts Page.
Andrew Duff
Accredited Guide Number: 22
Like most of my generation my family served in both World Wars and my father was a regular officer serving from WW2 to the mid-70s. It was as a child in Cyprus during the EOKA Campaign that my interest in History and Military History was sparked. My interest was further fuelled, at Sandhurst, by listening to John Keegan, David Chaundler and Peter Young. After Sandhurst I became a regular officer in the Army serving in the Infantry for 27 years followed by 10 years’ service in the Reserves with Airborne Forces.
On leaving the military I was able to indulge my love of military history and then utilise it as a guide. My interest has always been in the role played by the fighting soldier, that much derided player in military history. If you take the stories of the soldiers and officers of both sides involved and then analyse any battle using Alfred Burne’s theory of “Inherent Military Probability” you should understand what happened.
I have also, jointly with 2 fellow Accredited Guild Members, been involved in producing and presenting 50 films with Battlefield History TV. In this enterprise we have been assisted by many fellow accredited guides and have I believe added to the objective study of many battles.
I get immense pleasure in researching, planning and delivering battlefield tours to all types of client, from student groups, bespoke adult tours, military units and military headquarters, each has it challenges and rewards.
Ian Gumm
Accredited Guide Number: 62
Ian Gumm is the founder and CEO of In The Footsteps, a leading independent battlefield tour operator, as well as a full-time battlefield historian and guide. He has led tours since 1998 and has visited the battlefield of the Norman Conquest, the Hundred Years War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Anglo-Zulu War, the First World War, the Second World War … and much more.
“Touring the battlefield is my passion, it is what I love to do and I feel extremely privileged to be able to escort people around the battlefields of the world visiting some of the most important historical sites that have shaped the world in which we live.”
Ian served in the British Army as a Reservist for thirty-six years during which time he commanded B (Rorke’s Drift) Company of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Wales; commanded the Regimental Contingent at the affiliation parade with 121 South African Infantry Battalion (a Zulu Battalion) in South Africa; was the officer responsible for training all junior and potential officers in Wales and was the staff officer responsible for the First World War Centenary Commemorations for Wales.
His experience, gained both on the battlefield and with the British Army, allows him to add a soldier’s perspective and paint the picture of a battle on the canvas of the countryside. This enhances your tour experience, as Ian is not only able to impart an understanding of the history, but also a feel for the men who fought the battle and the ground over which they were fought.
“So whether you are ‘following in the footsteps’ of an ancestor or relative on a genealogy tour; ‘following in the footsteps of heroes’ on a more general tour or retracing the steps of a military unit or formation on a battlefield study or staff ride you can be sure that Ian will deliver an experience that will leave you with memories that last a lifetime.”
As an Accredited Member of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides, Ian endeavours to maintain the high standards, both in terms of service and good practice, that are commensurate with the Guild’s ethos. In addition to being an Accredited Member of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides, Ian is a member of the Western Front Association, the Last Post Association and a registered tour guide with the European Tour Operators Association.
As well as leading battlefield tours Ian delivers interesting and informative military history talks and presentations to professional organisations, businesses, clubs, societies and other groups, small or large.
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Mike Peters
Accredited Guide Number: 19
Mike Peters is a retired Army Air Corps Officer who has been leading battlefield tours for more than thirty years. He enlisted in the Army in 1980 at the age of 16 as a Junior Leader and progressed through a busy career to become a Regimental Sergeant Major. He was commissioned from the ranks in the year 2000. Mike finished his military career with postings as Deputy Chief of Staff of the UK Attack Helicopter Force and Ground Liaison Officer in the Headquarters of the RAF Tornado Force. Pre-pandemic, Mike ran his own training company, introducing aspirant guides to the battlefield tour industry, and was a co-Director of Staffride Ltd, specialising in Battlefield Studies for the UK military and NATO headquarters. He is now a UK MOD Civil Servant working in Communications and Heritage for the Royal Anglian Regiment.
Mike has extensive operational experience in Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq where he served during both Gulf wars. His last operational tour was in Afghanistan. This experience and knowledge of tactics gives him a soldier’s eye for ground and the implications of terrain on the weapon systems of your chosen period. He has a passion for military history which he combines with his own military experiences when working as a Battlefield Guide. He strives to place his audience on the field of battle with enough insight to understand the realities of battle, while helping them to imagine what the soldiers of the day saw and felt. This focus allows the listener to look at the battle from the inside out; this is of course every battlefield guide’s aim.
The campaigns of Wellington are Mike’s favourite subject area, although he is equally at home working with groups on the battlefields of the Great War. He is experienced in leading Australian and New Zealand groups over the ANZAC battlefields of the Western Front, Gallipoli and Palestine. Intimate knowledge of modern Air Assault operations also enables Mike to focus on the detail of the parachute and glider operations of World War Two. He regularly leads tours visiting the Landing Zones of Crete, Sicily, Normandy, Arnhem and the Rhine crossing.
Mike enjoys touring with both military and civilian groups and is regularly to be found on the continent leading civilian tours or military Battlefield Studies and Staff Rides. During the FWW Centenary he had a well-received weekly column in the East Anglian Daily Times and regularly contributes articles to military journals and magazines. Mike is a book reviewer for Soldier Magazine (House Magazine of the British Army) and is also a published author – he wrote ‘Glider Pilots at Arnhem’, ‘Glider Pilots in Sicily’ – both are books on the exploits of The Glider Pilot Regiment during World War Two. He has also worked as a TV presenter, featuring in programmes on The Hundred Years War, Dunkirk, Pegasus Bridge, The Glider Pilot Regiment, Operation Market Garden and the US Eighth Air Force daylight bombing campaign. He has just co-authored and published ‘Bomb Group’, the history of the 381st (H) Bomb Group USAAF, and is currently working on the Authorised Operational History of the Army Air Corps 1957-2017.
Mike is an Independent Battlefield Guide; he regularly leads tours for UK based Battle Honours Ltd, US based Experience to Lead, and Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours in Australia. He was awarded his Guild Badge by the late Professor Richard Holmes in November 2005. He was Vice Chairman of the Guild from 2010-2011, and then Chairman of the Guild from 2011 – 2022.
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